Drags Chase History: The Summer Finale

June, Auteuil

Drags Chase

Group 2, 5-year-olds and above, 4,400m/2m6f Chase, €155,000

Created in 1883

Last winner: Roxinela (f7, FRA by Muhtathir ex Grivette, by Antarctique), owned by Gheorghe Codre, bred by Gheorghe Codre, trained by François-Marie Cottin, ridden by Régis Schmidlin.

The Drags Chase will be run in 2021 for the 134th time.

The 2020 Edition

Saturday, July 4, 2020, Auteuil. - The final stages of the 2m6f-long Drags Chase (Gr2), the main race of the meeting, was particularly lively since three leaders succeeded each other between the last turn and the finish: a front-running Via Dolorosa (König Shuffle) had just given up command to Crystal Beach (Network), who had been a bit keen early on due to a 2nd start, and the JDG Bloodstock champion chaser looked to have made the most of it, but that was without counting in the tough Roxinela (Muhtathir), who came back in the run-in and finally won by a length while Al Roc (Great Pretender), long ridden unpretentiously by Kevin Nabet, was also finishing well to snatch the 2nd place.

Note that the French National (Gr3) winner D'Jango (Balko) fell early on and that Srelighonn (Martaline) went off course because of a broken bit before the last bend. Edgeoy (Saddler Maker), always noted with the leaders, couldn't keep up the pace in the end and finished fourth.

Placed in almost all of her top races last year, Roxinela ended her 2019 season in style by winning the Georges Courtois Chase (Gr2) and had made a promising comeback in the Murat Chase (Gr2). Unplaced afterwards at Compiègne in the Héros XII Chase (Gr3) won by Edgeoy, she had finished second of the Rigoletto Chase (L), at Compiègne again, far behind course specialist Hell Boy.

François-Marie Cottin trained this Gheorghe and Roxana Codre homebred mare, out of the brave Grivette (Antarctica), winner at of the Alain du Breil Hurdle Race (Gr1) at Auteuil.

History

The Drags Chase was first held on Friday 1 June 1883 at Auteuil. A steeplechase handicap run over 2 miles and 7 furlongs, the honours in this inaugural edition went to the English favourite Lord Chancellor. Carrying the top weight of 75.5 kilos, he had already shown his quality across the Channel by clinching the Grand Sefton Chase at Aintree and the Grand Military Gold Cup at Sandown. He had not taken part in the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris five days earlier, unlike the English mare Eau de Vie who, after taking second place on the Sunday, had to content herself with third place the following Friday. 11,550 F better off for the victory of his horse in "Les Drags", Mr Henderson decided to keep him in Paris for four more days to collect 12 750 F more on Monday 4 June. And it could scarcely have been easier money, as Lord Chancellor ran alone in the Prix des Cascades (3 miles 1 furlong) after the expected opponents withdrew late on in the face of the British competitor’s clear superiority.

A similar scenario presented itself the following year, but this time luck was on the side of Eau de Vie (aged 9) owned by the Duke of Hamilton, trained in England by Richard Marsh and ridden by his brother-in-law, the amateur rider Dennis Thirlwell. His first success came on the Friday in the Drags Chase at the expense of Baudres, Baron Finot’s champion from the Wednesday’s Grande Course de Haies d'Auteuil. But the second success on Monday 9 June in the Prix des Cascades was far removed from the previous year’s canter in the park, as carrying 78 kilos, he only beat his 4-year-old compatriot Donny Carney (63 kilos) by a head. And the latter had also been busy, having finished fourth in the Grand Steeple on Sunday 1 June and first in the Prix du Défilé (2 miles 2 furlongs) on Friday 6 June.

After these two initial triumphs for British horses, the challenge of the cross-Channel raiders quickly faded. Indeed, ahead of the 127th edition in 2014 (the race was not held from 1915 to 1918 or in 1940), the Drags Chase honours list includes the names of just three more English competitors: Jerry M (1909), Easter Hero (1928) and Herring Gull (1970, trained by John Ciechanowski, a well-known figure in France). All three had taken part in the Grand Steeple five days earlier, the first two having suffered falls. Jerry M, meanwhile, lost out to Saint Caradec but exacted his revenge the following year by outclassing his French rivals.

From 1883 to 1894, the Drags Chase was run in handicap form with a sole condition: "all winners after the publication of the weights will carry 3 additional kilos ".From 1895, it became a conditions race (with different overweights) for horses having taken part in the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris or the Grande Course de Haies d'Auteuil, with the winners of these two biggest races of the year excluded. Basically, the Drags Chase was aimed at those who had missed out in the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris run five days earlier. And so it remained until 1947 when the ban on the participation of the Grand Steeple winner was lifted. After 1970, the winner of the Grand Steeple was not excluded in name but by the conditions, which ruled that the horses must not have won prize money of 80,000 F, increased to 200,000 F from 1973. Finally, dating from 1988, the Drags Chase was run on the same day as the Grand Steeple, a situation that continued until 1997, during which period the quality of the participants dipped. In 1998, when the Grand Steeple was brought forward to the last Sunday in May, the Drags Chase remained associated with the third week in June forming, together with the Grande Course de Haies and the Prix Alain du Breil, Auteuil’s second most important meeting of the first half of the year. The prize money on offer for the winner having been vastly increased, the Drags Chase has found a new lease of life and now attracts the top steeplechasers, including the unlucky losers from the Grand Steeple, who now benefit from a three-week recovery period.

Its original distance of 2 miles 5 furlongs, shorter than that of the Grand Steeple, has often varied but never exceeded the 2 miles 6 ½ furlongs favoured from 1908 to 1961. Reduced to 2 miles 5 ½ furlongs from 1962 to 1967, the distance was subsequently modified to 2 miles 5 furlongs (1968 to 1970), 2 miles 6 furlongs (1971 to 1987), 2 miles 4 ½ furlongs (1988 and 1989) and again 2 miles 5 ½ furlongs (1990 to 1997), before settling at 2 miles 6 furlongs since 1998.

Les Drags

The Larousse dictionary defines the drag as a sort of carriage (like a mail coach) “in which ladies would follow a drag, namely a race simulating a mounted hunt in which the role of the prey is taken by a rider whose horse drags behind it a fox skin, thereby leaving a scent to be followed by the dogs".

At the wish of the Prince de Sagan, chairman of the Société des Steeple-Chases de France, Drags day at Auteuil were a veritable festival of elegance. After the Grand Steeple run on the Sunday and the Grande Course de Haies on the Wednesday, four evocatively named races were planned for the Friday from 1893: the Prix du Rendez-vous, Prix du Défilé, Drags Chase and Prix de la Vénerie. On the day, four-in-hand carriages gathered in the Place de la Concorde in front of the Hôtel de Coislin (home to the headquarters of the Société des Steeple-Chases de France), before transporting dozens of guests on the 75-minute journey, driven not by coachmen but by their distinguished owners. After heading up the Champs Elysées and then going down the Avenue du Bois (now the Avenue Foch), they twisted their way alongside the lakes of the Bois de Boulogne to reach Auteuil around 2 pm. There, they formed a procession to the beat of a triumphant military march. After alighting, the elegant passengers would cross the track via the carpet unfurled for them to the weighing area where their hosts, the committee members, would welcome them. Shunning the racing, they would stroll behind the scenes, under the great trees in the paddock, making several stops at the Roman Pavilion, where afternoon tea would be served. "For meetings of this type, the races are nothing but a pretext: one goes there not to see, but to be seen: it amounts to a fashion contest which overshadows everything else and captures all the attention; indeed, the Committee stand is transformed into a venue for the special award for the most elegant ladies from Parisian high society".

On 13 June 1890 at Auteuil, nineteen mail coaches took part in this exclusive ritual. The following year it was twenty-six, followed by twelve in 1904 and ten in 1911. Cancelled during the two world wars, this festival of elegance would however have a long life courtesy of the later involvement of the fashion houses, delighted to have a showcase for the trends of the day. The tradition thus continued until 1967, until the events of 1968 put an end to such displays of unbridled elegance at Auteuil.

N.B. Text taken from the book "Auteuil hier and Aujourd'hui " (volume 1, 1830-1915) by Guy Thibault (Editions du Castelet, Menton).

Multiple winners

Eight horses have won the Prix de Drags more than once: two have won it three times: Journaliste (1908, 1910, 1911) and Quo Vadis (1954, 1955, 1958); and six have won it twice: Gisors (1886, 1887), Violon II (1904, 1906), Héros XII (1920, 1923), Dryas (1946, 1947), Florinaco (1963, 1965) and El Paso III (2001, 2002).

The Drags Chase and the Grand Steeple

The double has been done 15 times: 4 times in the Grand Steeple-Drags order, by Valois (1896-1897), Kargal (1943, 1945), Bel La Vie (2013-2015), Storm of Saintly (2014-2016); 10 times in the Drags-Grand Steeple order, by Solitaire (1896-1897), Jerry M (1909-1910), L'Yser (1921-1923), Symbole (1941-1942), Bouzoulou (1948-1949), Bonosnap (1956-1957), Cacao (1966-1967), Ubu III (1991-1995), Arenice (1995-1996) and Polar Rochelais (2009-2010). One horse, Héros XII, has sandwiched a Grand Steeple victory (1922) between a pair of successes in the Drags Chase (1920, 1923). Lastly, although the winner of the Grand Steeple was not qualified to run in the same year’s Drags Chase, the double was done in 2002 by El Paso III, who was not awarded first place in the Grand Steeple-Chase until the autumn, when the disqualification of Double Car was announced after a long enquiry into the presence of controlled substances.

Owners

• Jules Finot (3 wins): North Pole (1885), Ardent II (1898), Quitte ou Double (1900).
• Eugène Fischhof (3 wins): Journaliste (1908, 1910, 1911).
• Max de Rivaud (3 wins): Strelitz (1930), Heugon (1931), Mérigo (1944).
• Alberto Duggan (3 wins): L’Arbre Broyé (1939), Dryas (1946, 1947).
• Pierre Delafosse (3 wins): Quo Vadis (1954, 1955, 1958).
• Daniel Wildenstein (3 wins): Ardfern (1961), Dear Patrick (1984), Indien Bleu (2000).

Trainers

• Jean-Paul Gallorini (6 wins): Ardfern (1961), Si Jamais (1989), King Mister (1993), Cour d’Honneur (1994), Indien Bleu (2000), Princesse Kap (2014)
• Alphonse Baresse (4 wins): De La Tour (1890), Senlis (1891), Violon II (1904, 1906). 
• Maurice d’Okhuysen (4 wins): Strelitz (1930), Heugon (1931), Jalgreya (1943), Kargal (1945). 
• René Pelat (4 wins): Quo Vadis (1954, 1955, 1958), Vidilino (1971). 
• François Doumen (4 wins): Nupsala (1987), Ubu III (1991), Corton (1997), Rubissimo (1999). 

Riders

• Paul Péraldi (4 wins): Rameau (1951), Quo Vadis (1954, 1955), Bonosnap (1956).
• Christophe Pieux (4 wins): Chamberko (1998), El Paso III (2002), Hercule Noir (2005), Louping d’Ainay (2008).
• George Mitchell (3 wins): Héros XII (1920, 1923), Virulent (1924). 
• Robert Bates (3 wins): Mérigo (1943), Dryas (1946, 1947). 
• Denis Leblond (3 wins): Ardfern (1981), Dear Patrick (1984), Gamelion (1986). 

• Philippe Chevalier (3 wins): King Mister (1993), Cabernet (1996), Corton (1997).